It's better out West.
Adventures from our home in Colorado Springs and our cabin in the mountains. Gardening, prepping, dog wrangling, ranting, etc. I can't promise anything here is useful but it's our way-back machine.
You just might find some nice photo's, recipes, and ideas.

Friday, August 26, 2016

What season is it?

After a few weeks of really hot weather, it seemed that spring showed up again. Rain, and more rain, and some more. Hail, rain, wind, thunderstorms, rain, hail, etc.
Did I mention snow yet?
Waking up to 42 degree weather is exciting, the mountains still have a dusting of snow on them for almost 2 weeks straight. I slept so well because I had all the windows open and it was certainly chilly inside, I had to be brave when it was time to get out of the shower. We have some warmer weather coming again next week with temperatures back in the 90's. For now we are enjoying the rain, the green scenery and the creeks/streams with 2-3 times the normal volume for August.

It's mouse season. We think they made a nest in the fireplace, they are in for a surprise when we clean everything one more time before we need to light it up. We've eliminated a few in traps but they are small little creatures with light little gentle peanut butter licking tongues.

It's also canning season!

Peach jam or maybe it's witches brew!

I scraped the pot and shoveled it into my mouth... so good.

Colorado peaches were .98 per pound and we snagged 20 pounds of them. That will eventually net us 28-30 pints of jam. Honey crisp apples were in stock at Costco and 1/2 the price I could find anywhere so grabbed 2 dozen and I currently am cooling 7 pints of apple slices in a very light sauce. Blueberries I found at a local supermarket and they actually looked really good so 8 pounds of those are going to be jammed up.
That's a whole lot of action going on inside this weekend. Outside it's going to be dry enough to seal the deck and replace the railing boards. I'm not sure we have enough time but there are 24 hours in a day, why not make the most of them all. We also need to run, eat and hike Rock around.

I made it back to the gym after Las Vegas and several days off. I had some great workouts. I've been getting octagon cage rounds once a week and doing really well. When sparring full on MMA against people 1/2 my age (and younger), it's nice to see improvement. I also got my first Jiu Jitsu belt rank promotion, very unexpected and a pleasant surprise. I've set high expectations for myself.

Cool. My wife has had Pits for 30 years now, and we currently have a 3~4 year old rescue dog. We had two others, but the kids took them when they moved to Fort Collins.

They still go NUTS when they hear our voices before they see us when we visit.

Great dogs. Very loyal, protective, and lovable. The little (67lbs) one we have now is really smart. She knows the names of at least 5 of her toys, and will go get the one you tell her to when it's playtime.

Great dogs. Too bad Da Bruddas ruined their reputation by raising them to fight.

This is our 2nd pit, we've had hotties, sheps and my boy Luke was a random mix. Rock was a rescue, spent almost a whole year in a shelter so he doesn't like his paws being touched so it's hell when it's time to trim his dew-claws but the vet does a great job.

He's smart as a whip. If there is a time we sit around too much (very rare), he goes and knocks his leash around, he loves to hike in the mountains.

That photo is really nice, amazing the sort of thing the iPhone can capture. Rock wasn't being patient with all the storm activity so I couldn't 'wait for the perfect picture' but it came out great.42 this morning, 70's during the day. I enjoy it, especially when so much needs to be done outdoors. Soon we will both be watching the leaves fall down and hope a strong wind blows them away.